Age: 19
Born: NY, NY, USA

Born Bianca White, or she would have been if her parents had survived the car crash that brought her into the world, instead she was adopted by a New York Business mogul who's dynasty fell when the Dayton Reactors blew. It wasn't a flaw in his company's software, but that's what got all the blame in the end.  Shaw Industries fell flat and Jeffery Shaw was being held accountable for the thousands of lives lost and the billions of dollars spent on cleaning up the melt down.

But that was after Bianca became Trinity Shaw.  And much later than she joined the military at the tender age of eighteen. It wasn't a surprise that Trinity went into the military having been sent to every Military School on the Eastern Seaboard.  To say she was a handful was playing nice.  It was almost poetic when when she joined the Navy.  And then when she went into Special Ops. Her father couldn't have been prouder. Her mother, Tina Shaw was always worrying and she had every worry confirmed three years after Trinity told her folks that she was going on a super secret I can't tell you anything more mission.

Trinity never returned. Not because she died, but because she was had enrolled in a super secret pilot program.  During the first three years, she could send messages back home.  And then suddenly they just stopped. Trinity vanished.  There were no paper trails, no death certificate.  Nothing, not even a body to bury when the Shaw's finally gave up the search for their darling daughter.

Trinity didn't just vanish, she became someone else. Someone she was trained to become.  Someone no one would suspect. 

There were many military candidates in the program. But only Trinity surpassed the credentials and the final tests -- one year deep cover.  So deep Trinity became Mia Wolf in everything not just the faked DNA, the finger prints, everything that had identified her as Trinity Shaw was now Mia Wolf.

Were there two of her in the system?  Only the deepest of delves could find the truth to the matter and digging that deep would flag every known agent to be deployed on the location registered. The secret was hidden inside other secrets -- lost to the world except for those who ran the program. And no one knew what program that even was.

Mia Wolf picked up a life. She traveled the world.  Mia saw the Eiffel Tower and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. She went on walk-a-bout in Australia. Mia lived a life that Trinity Shaw never dreamed of.  She found love in London, a bartender with a sorted family history.  Though he didn't love her back in the same way.

It was one night, they were curled up in bed after an afternoon spent there all day. The bar ran itself he said.  And Mia had no where else to be.  They watched as the Ascendancy shifted a building into something else on live television.  Something snapped in her.  Mia stood up leaving the love of her life on the bed calling after her.  "Mia.  Mia! What's wrong?  Mia"

She ignored him as she walked out of the room naked.  And out the door.  It wasn't until the police wrapped her up in a catatonic state and sent her to the hospital. Hours later she woke up from a sedative induced sleep.

The nurse asked. "Hun, can you tell me your name?"

"No, you may not." she said leaving the hospital much like she'd left his apartment this time barely covered with only the hospital gown for covering. 

Trinity walked the streets of London looking for something -- anything.  If she'd only stayed long enough to realize she'd made a full 360 back to where she'd fled, but in the window of Safe Harbour bar was the symbol she was looking for, a snake eating its own tale in the myriad of other etching on the side of the glass.  She walked in.

The bartender jumped over the bar and scooped her up in his arms. "Mia where have you been?"

Trinity put on a faked sweet smile.  "I need my clothes and a gun.  I have to go."  She tapped the tattoo on her left shoulder blade and pointed to a snake biting its own tail.  The same symbol that had been embedded in a the other etchings was buried with the artwork of her tattoo. "You can help me, right?"

The man frowned. "I don't have any guns.  Mia, what's going on?"

She looked at him "Don't worry about it. My clothes?"

"Upstairs in the dryer."

Trinity didn't wait as she fetched her clothes and walked out of the bar. Trinity didn't quite understand what was going on, but she had a sudden urge to be in Moscow where the Ascendancy was.

As she sat in the airport with newly acquired clothes, none of the frilly flowery stuff her other self had worn she understood why she was awakened from her state with such distain.  The three words had been spoken albeit on television by the very man with whom she now was seeking out.  But spoken none-the-less.  The gods had publicly awoken and were called to arms in a manner of speaking.  Her skills were necessary.

Assassinating the Ascendancy was much harder than she'd trained for.  She could never get close enough, the skies around the Kremlin were watched more than any other place Trinity had ever been. Enough that she gave up on the mission and started her journal.

Quote:Dear Mia, We find ourselves in London. A mission I cannot complete, failures shall not go unnoticed, but this particular one is off limits. Whatever the man meant to you, I'm sorry. But you should stay away from him, he's bad news.  Take it from me.

I have acquired us a place to stay, to watch. Wake me when things get strange, in an already strange world.

Remember, weakness and humility will reveal your true value.

Hey all! Posted Em’s wedding thread. If you think your character might have been invited, they probably were. Feel free to head on in - I just ask you wait until I post Jared first!

So excited to be coming back here!

Emily looked in the mirror and smiled.  She couldn't believe today was here.  Everything had changed quickly.  And today she was marrying her best friend.

A knock came to the door, and Rachel entered, wearing her Maid of Honor dress.  Rachel has taken Ayden's place as her Maid of Honor.  And despite all the happiness, Emily couldn't help but miss her friend.

"You are so beautiful!" she said, running to give her sister a hug. "It's almost time. Are you ready?"

Emily sighed. "I've never been more ready for anything in my life." she said sincerely.  "This all just feels so right."

Rachel smiled and gave her sister a hug before letting Emily a hug and leading her to wear her grandfather waited.  "You're so beautiful!" her grandfather said before his face turned a little somber. "Please don't take this the wrong way, Em, but I'm sorry that I have to be the one to walk you down.  Your father would have been so proud of the woman you've become and the man you've chosen."

Emily smiled and wrapped him in a hug. "I know and I understand, but you can't make me cry yet." she said with slight smile.

Her grandfather laughed and pulled away to look at her. "Ready?"

Emily smiled broadly. "Let's get me married!"

"AHHHHHH"

Giovanni screamed in anger, swiping his desk clean in the process.  A clay pot on his desk shattered on the floor.  Things were not going as expected.  No matter what, Al-Janyar wasn't making any headway.  At the very least, they weren't giving any ground in the process.  Giovanni paced the room, the weight of the Eye of Horus the only thing that kept him from lashing out further.  It did something.  Giovanni was sure of that.  Still he couldn't figure out how to work it.

"My Lord?" Aaliayah's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"This is my birthright.  All of this.  It's all there.  Why can't I take it!"

Aaliyah frowned.  The passing of time had made her more wary of her leader.  She had joined him because he had taken Ibrahim out of the picture.  An alliance with the new Al-Janyar leader was more to raise her own station than anything else.  Yet she wondered if this man was sane enough to actually move Al-Janyar forward.  Still - Giovanni was powerful and betrayal wouldn't be met well.  She would bide him time.  So for now, she was the only one who saw him like this.  In fact, she was the only one who knew he was calling the shots.  To the rest of the world - the Al-Janyar leader was a phantom.

"This is your doing," he said, pointing a finger at her.  His pacing intensified. "You're supposed to be my prophetess.  Why isn't it working?"

"My Lord, the world is in chaos everywhere.  Spreading your message alone is difficult.  I need acolytes."

Giovanni growled.  This would reveal his identity to more.

"My Lord?" Aaliyah asked again, wondering what she should do.

Giovanni's pacing stooped. "Chaos, huh." he said, a smirk hitting his face. "Perhaps if diplomacy is doing little, maybe we should try something else.  It's time."

Her days were filled from dawn to dusk, and still lacked sufficient hours. In fact Natalie could not recall the last time she’d slept in her own bed rather than caught naps on her apartment sofa. The Northbrooks owned an old property in Switzerland, so she’d known a little of the restorative process, but there was a reason these old Russian estates, abandoned since the Bolsheviks, had remained in ruins for so long. They were money pits.

Natalie poured everything in; sensible with the investment, but reckless with the amounts. Had she asked, her mother would have been in ardent support of the project, and likely relieved to see her daughter so rooted in something productive, but Natalie was still ignoring her calls – and the family money. Instead A K Holdings supplied the shortfall. She hadn’t seen Adrian since she’d brought him here and made her impulsive offer, and Belizna was now far from the ruin it had been that balmy summer night. He hadn’t been wrong to remark the manor’s suitability for a destination hotel; between the grounds and the austere gothic castle, an unusual sight in this part of the world, there was an unrivalled grandeur to its sense of history. But as she’d told him then: this wasn’t about profit.

Adrian’s office was responsive, even at the unusual hours Natalie worked to sometimes, and she was content not to deal with the man himself. She availed of his contacts as well as his money, and it had undoubtedly helped expedite the work to have both. The manor was structurally secure, much of it habitable if still largely empty. Several rooms were furnished now, and she spent more time here than the sterile apartment in central Moscow. It would likely take years to see it fully finished, but what had been completed in the relatively short time was nothing short of formidable.

Pushing Belizna to be ready to open its doors commanded much of her time, and if Natalie was not managing the ongoing project, she was networking – work she liked less, honestly, though it was easy to be charming and sow the seeds she needed. Zhenya had been a surprisingly vocal and vociferous ally there, being much loved already in the most elite circles of Moscow’s social scene, and with grudging acceptance that she could not do everything by herself, Natalie was slowly letting the woman do more to flutter rumour of the cause in the right ears. For some nights she was simply too exhausted to don the mask herself.

Amidst her busy schedule, today’s particular job had not exactly been planned for. Natalie had had no intention in informing the Channeling Consulate of her plans, let alone Brandon’s sly military arm, but Mexico’s machinations were all rapidly coming to a head. She kept abreast of the changing politics, though she remained distant from her own witness of their foundations. Jessika Thrice paid for her title in blood, as did Scion Marveet, but it was the discrete arrival of a Mexican delegate that urged her hand to interfere. She’d known little of Commander Vellas before then, and that little comprised of things she sometimes wondered if Jay was actually supposed to impart, or realised he did. Gaining access to him had not been easy, even for a Patron’s granddaughter, but Natalie was persistent, not least with sufficient motivation. If she could gain an audience with the Ascendancy himself in order to discover what had happened to Jay after his arrest, she could certainly find the man he trusted to lead his men now Jay was a Dominion among them.

Michael had given little away over the call, not least whether he had been surprised to receive it. Reaching out to him was not without risk, and she disliked the notion it was a tentative bridge which might prove dangerous to her down the line. He was a generous and eloquent speaker, though, and Natalie reasoned it suggested he would be amenable to the request she would make of him. Charm and certainty were her tools, though she would use leverage as necessary. And he agreed to the meeting at least, intrigued by the project she described, else by the woman who moved mountains to speak to him directly in the first place.

Snow coated the grounds, obscuring quite how overgrown it all still was. The steps had been cleared, and she perched on one to wait at the agreed time, a number of privately opaque holos arranged across her lap. Natalie had a desk inside, but beyond the cavernous marble foyer and hallways, she never would have heard an arrival. The sounds of workmen were distant, but aside from that there was no one else here. Unless Toma was lurking, though Natalie saw less of her these days; presumably because she was staying out of trouble.

She was dressed for the winter, a fur-lined hat over light-gold hair, and a thick coat belted snug around her waist. Alarmingly pale eyes sat in a face currently flushed by the cold, though by her neutral expression, the temperature did not seem to bother her. For once it was not Belizna that occupied her attention while she waited for Michael’s arrival, but a matter more personal. Natalie was rarely idle. Jay had not asked for her help (and it was undoubtedly very illegal) but it hadn’t been difficult to use her position as ambassador to pull the strings to deal with his family’s estate back in the US. The animals had already been cared for, but it seemed he’d ignored every other communication from the lawyers concerning the property and what was left of the farm. Ensuring the family belongings were packed up into storage had been simple enough. It was doubtful he’d ever want to go back there, but it felt wrong to leave it all to rot. If not for Jay, then for Cayli. But his father’s debts were eye-watering, and the financials were all tangled. She had no doubt Jay would never want to know, and she never planned to tell him; she was settling what needed settling, but probate was a glacial process.

[[Continued from In Absentia]]

For weeks he’d kept his life together, constructing an artifice of routine and going through the motions like each one was nothing more than a touchstone to mark the normal passing of time. The twins and Sterling. Sage and Paragon and Kallisti and the girls. Nox’s texts. But the distance crept in, inch by inch, and when he looked down on his life, he recognised nothing in it. By the time of the excruciating Vasiliev ball he was finding it difficult to relate to any of the things he knew he ought to care about, and Kristian’s words set up a haunt in his mind that ran its doubts over everything that remained.

He gave Lily to Sterling for safekeeping. Told Carmen he needed some time away from work; assured her there was no reason to worry. There was no plan, just an emptiness that he could no longer bear to pretend away for the sake of others. He smiled when he left.

His last clear memory was of the Carnival, resplendent with Halloween revelry. Shadows and ghouls, darkness beckoning, a bacchanal promise.

Raffe walked into the Veil’s Embrace. He didn’t remember coming out.

He didn’t know who found him, or how. Frost crunched the ground now, the season succumbing to the skeletal clutch of winter’s icy caress. Weeks more had passed. Life quietened and died around him; Raffe wasn’t in the city anymore, but madness chased memories, and he only knew it because he was later told. Hollows carved his cheeks to diamond peeks and made solitary monuments of each rib. Track marks and bruises decorated his arms and legs; failed attempts at capturing meaning, addictions he’d always denied himself. He had vague recollection of a honey-coated tongue, but the words whispered away on the wind; he didn’t want to be saved. And then, as though no time had passed at all, he remembered the sterile walls of Paragon.

He let himself hibernate through the parade of scientists, eyes often closed even when he wasn’t asleep. White coats that coaxed him to talk, insisted he eat. He never even noticed when the scenery changed once more.

[[continued from House Party]]

In the neon wash of lights in the RLD, no one glanced twice at the kink of a black velvet mask covering a woman’s face. Once she was far enough away from Nox’s building, she finally parted her lips to let it fall loose into the splay of her waiting hand. For a time at least, the fresh cold air soothed how hot and stuffy it had been underneath, but Muscovite winter bit hard. She considered the warmth and distraction of one of the district’s clubs – the night was still young enough, and she hadn’t exactly figured on leaving the other party alone. But the Emissary’s keys were tight in her hand, and time might well be of the essence, so she pushed her mask into the hands of a passerby with a knowing wink, then found herself transport.

Her current home was new to her: an indomitable and exclusive highrise. Moscow had a lot to choose from, and Nesrin enjoyed luxury – all the more when it was “borrowed.” Security gave her no trouble; the doorman recognised her already, and even said a hello as the click of her heels crossed the marble foyer. He tapped his chest, and she glanced down at hers, certain she’d removed the party sticker, but it was only the pink Hello Kitty badge. She gave a cute smirk, raised her brows, but offered no explanation. He could make his own.

She stopped by her condo, but only briefly on the way up. Her hip was smarting where she’d fallen backwards, and she’d explored enough of the building to have discovered somewhere better to spend the rest of night. The skyline twinkled like tiny cast jewels from the rooftop, city noise distant. This particular glass-framed corner of it was an open air oasis, but Nesrin liked the icy chill of the cold on her skin. She dumped her bottle of champagne and flipped the switch of the jacuzzi. It might have been common space, or it might have belonged to one of the other apartments; she actually didn’t know, but the wide-eyed ignorance of a ditsy house-sitter was often enough to convince of innocence. And a half-naked girl in a hot tub was usually forgiven her trespasses quickly enough.

She pulled on the robe, wriggling out of the dress and leaving it to pool forgotten on the floor. It was fucking cold, but it only flushed her cheeks with the exhilaration. She didn’t check for bruises, and the light was too soft a glow in the darkness to see much anyway; instead, wrapped in fluffy warmth, she pulled on the bikini underneath. While she waited for the water to warm, she leaned back against the edge and examined the keys. She’d only intended them for leverage, not for keeps. Stealing was a risky game, not least when you were caught, and the m’Antinomian were dangerous for what they could unravel. Not that she didn’t still plan to bargain her way out of it, but something about the way the Emissary had touched her arm still didn’t sit right, and she was curious as to what she was bargaining with.

They’d felt like keys, but this was the first time all evening she’d been able to look at them properly.

And now she wasn’t so sure.

Roza didn't care what he mother said as they came home late from the party nearly freezing to death.  She ignored the offers of tea and warmth by the fire and instead kept Esper at her side as she entered her sleeping section.  The house wasn't big, and everyone shared rooms, but they were sectioned off with hanging blankets and wooden panels for some semblance of privacy.  Esper had her own space and they had often shared space as young girls, now it was different.  Her mother understood the relationship had changed.  Long before Esper and Roza had figured it out themselves.  

Roza kicked off her shoes but that was the extent of her disrobing for the moment, her teeth were chattering and she pulled Esper down into the large comforter that covered her small bed.  "It'll be warmer together."

Roza had every intention of talking to Esper but as they lay together huddled under the blankets she was safe and warm and drifted off to sleep.  And when the sun streamed through the open windows Roza smiled having Esper by her side.  She leaned over and kissed her friend softly to wake her.  "When you are ready we need to talk about last night, and the question you asked me."